HOME MAINTENANCE A GOOD START FOR ENTREPRENEURS
I’m not sure any country can have too many entrepreneurs, but I am sure Canada needs more. And when it comes to growing young entrepreneurs, simple home improvement and maintenance work offers a lot of promise. I know because I’ve experienced it.
In 1975, my parents hired a contractor for major renovations to our suburban bungalow, and that event changed the course of my life.
The contractor’s name was Andy Steier, a Hungarian Jew who somehow managed to survive a ride on a Nazi death train as a boy during the Second World War. Steier eventually made his way to Canada and started his own building firm.
Watching him work was my first introduction to the entrepreneurial life and I’ve been addicted ever since. I was 12 years old and I’d never before seen a man earn money in true proportion to his efforts and effectiveness. Steier didn’t have a job, he was the generous ruler of his own little kingdom.
He also let me experience the entrepreneurial life for myself in a way that more young people today should.
It began one day as I was riding my bike down the street. A friend’s father flagged me down with a question: “How’s that garage project going at your place, Steve?”
“Really good, Mr. Abernathy. The workers start early and finish late. They’ll be done the roof this week. My parents like it.”
A few days later, Steier drove up and handed me an envelope with my name on it. Inside was a cheque for $100. “That’s your commission,” he said in his thick European accent. “Your neighbour chose me to build his pool because of what you said.” It was the sweetest $100 I’ve ever earned.
Steier went on to make me into my own contractor of sorts. He lived on a large country property with five acres of grass to mow and rake, plus lots of small fix-it jobs to do around the place. He taught me how to use his John Deere tractor, how to back up a trailer full of leaves, and the enormously motivating sensation of being paid for results, not for time spent on the clock.
I learned how to use tools, how to continue working when I was tired and cold, and how to put in eight-hour days without a boss. “I’ll pay you $20 for each grass cutting,” he explained. “How quickly or slowly you do the work, I don’t care. Just do the job right.”
My days cutting grass never went so quickly as when I rushed around trying my best to get quality and speed to meet. The place was big and my record time for a grass cutting was six hours, 20 minutes, delivering me an unheard of $3.17 an hour — 20 per cent more than the adult minimum wage at the time. I was a wealthy boy.
Learning to work — first as a service to the family, then as a young entrepreneur — is a powerful way to help young people meet their full potential.
Starting a small home-maintenance business is one of the few opportunities left in society where a young person can learn what it feels like to be rewarded in proportion to what they accomplish. Work well and you thrive. Work badly and your wallet gets thin.
Maybe it’s old fashioned to think that hard work and being rewarded for results are good for people and good for our country, but some truths never go out of fashion.
Hear me talk more about why there’s never been a better time to encourage young people to get hands-on and entrepreneurial on my podcast at baileylineroad. com/young-people.